Addressing the Homeless Politically - University of San Francisco

On Wed. April 30, 2008 the University of San Francisco
chapter of Democracy Matters hosted and moderated an
event titled: "Addressing the Homeless Politically". 
We had a panel of two speakers present the connection
between homelessness and the current political system.
 The first speaker is a Professor at University of San
Francisco, Roberta Johnson.  Professor Johnson has
worked closely with a variety of outreach
organizations in San Francisco that serve the
homeless.  She was able to provide great insight into
the political system from the perspective of a
homeless person. The second speaker, Robert Arnow,
helped pass legislation to make public funding
available for the SF mayoral race.  Together, they
were able to outline the possible benefits of clean
elections for the homeless.  When elected officials
are not distracted by big money constituents, the
homeless and homeless advocates will have more of an
opportunity to voice their needs.  

After the panelists were done speaking, they opened it
up for questions which spurred a round-table
discussion of clean elections in general.  There were
a few students attending that were unfamiliar with
Clean Elections and it was great to review the process
with them.    The event was incredibly informative
especially in terms of learning more about what clean
election elements were already in place in the city of
San Francisco.  The Democracy Matters members were
really excited to hear about the network of people in
San Francisco that already support Clean Elections.  
Mr. Arnow was also invited by the students attending
the event to speak more about the strategy of his
campaign to pass clean election funding for the
Mayoral Office.  The chocolate chip cookies were
everyone's favorite. 

Lacy Clark
University of San Francisco Campus Coordinator